Qantas, union spar over scathing staff survey

A survey conducted by the aircraft engineers union has found an extremely high level of dissatisfaction among Qantas workers.

Almost 3,000 airline employees were surveyed, and Qantas staff overwhelmingly had little faith in the ability of the airline's management and board.

Qantas is calling the survey rubbish, but the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association is standing by its findings.

"These are the things that Qantas undoubtedly uncovered through their own internal surveys and never wanted released," union national secretary Steve Purvinas said.

"We've got these answers from employees - not just union members - they come from managers."

The union used one of the industry's most popular websites to survey pilots, flight attendants, ramp managers, customer service and support staff.

A total of 2,750 responded over several months on issues including communications, safety and management.

Virgin Australia got the thumbs up from its staff, but Mr Purvinas says that was not the case with Jetstar and Qantas.

"Only 4 per cent of Qantas engineers feel that senior management are taking the airline in the right direction," he said.

"And only 43 per cent of Qantas managers think that Qantas management is taking the company in the right direction."

Many Qantas employees said they would not even recommend the airline to their own families.

"A lot of these workers are still proud to work for the airline but when it comes to recommending the quality of the product to family and friends ... Qantas pilots recommend the airline 3.5 out of 10, Jetstar recommend the airline 2.5 out of 10," he said.

"Then where we look at the other airlines that they compete with, Virgin staff recommend 8.3 out of 10."

'Gossip and rumour'

Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth says that is totally at odds with the airline's own staff surveys.

"The survey was conducted by the licensed engineers' union on an aviation gossip and rumour website. The survey lacks independence and transparency and is clearly skewed," she said.

"The survey was on the same website where Mr Purvinas infamously said during last year's damaging industrial dispute that he would bake Qantas slowly.

"It's disappointing and sad that Mr Purvinas is continuing his campaign to damage the Qantas brand after he disrupted tens of thousands of Qantas passengers last year by taking strike action."

But Mr Purvinas says the survey is not about waging war between his union and Qantas.

"These guys don't know what they are doing we need someone else in charge, someone that we can look up to and follow their direction," he said.

Qantas says it has got to make difficult changes to remain competitive and that it is confident most of its employees accept that reality.